Cataract Canyon River Rafting Trips

Please meet at our Green River, Utah warehouse for a 7:00 p.m. Mountain Time pre-trip meeting. You’ll meet your guides, receive your waterproof bags and instructions on how best to pack them, and have time to purchase last minute items from our store (look over our packing checklist for a list of such items). Please consider dropping off any personal beverages (specialty sodas, beer, wine, etc.) at this time so that we can pack them into our coolers.

We’ll meet you back at our Green River headquarters the next morning at the time determined during the pre-trip meeting. It’s a 90-minute ride to the put-in, east along the base of the Book Cliffs, then south toward Moab.

Hop in an inflatable kayak or onto a stand-up paddle board (SUP) for some exercise, or settle in on a raft. We’ll lunch on a sandbar and maybe take a short afternoon hike to an exposed petrified wood boneyard. Look up high to wave to visitors at Dead Horse Point State Park. We’ll camp on a sandbar and kick the trip off with a delicious meal as the guides help everyone get accustomed to river life.

Morning sun makes the walls glow like red gold. Listen for the descending song of the canyon wren, or paddle your SUP along the shore in search of otters and great blue herons. The Colorado meanders peacefully in this section.

Swim alongside the rafts or lounge under an umbrella; the afternoon may provide the opportunity to hike to thousand-year-old rock structures built by the Fremont Culture. Learn to spot granaries (ancient food storage structures) on the cliff walls as we continue downstream.

Today we’ll reach the confluence of the Colorado and Green rivers, believed by some cultures to be the center of the universe. Swim through the line where the two rivers meet and buckle up your personal flotation device! Rapids are just a few miles ahead.

Just below the confluence, enjoy a view of the Doll House, a collection of freestanding, sandstone columns: one of the remotest regions of the Maze District of Canyonlands.

Wake to the sound of nature’s white noise machine: rapids! After a hearty breakfast, we’ll do a whitewater safety talk, tighten our PFDs, and prepare to get splashed. We’ll stop and scout a few of the biggest rapids, giving plenty of time for the suspense to build. Hold on tight for the Big Drops: Little Niagara and Satan’s Gut!

We may stop and look at some historic inscriptions or explore one of the many side canyons. We’ll roll into our camp for the night along with a wave of endorphins, and celebrate our successful runs with a riverside feast.

After a few last rapids, the water calms again, and the canyon walls rise, smooth and majestic. We’re now officially in Glen Canyon Recreation Area – an area constantly in flux as the Lake Powell Reservoir water levels change. As the reservoir levels drop, the Mighty Colorado river continues its path downstream, and we’ll float our way to the take out just beyond the mouth of the Dirty Devil River. A two-hour drive brings us back to Green River. Our expected time of arrival back at our headquarters is from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m.

Wilderness river trips are changeable by nature. Please understand that this is only a sample itinerary for a Colorado side Cataract trip. Some of our Cataract trips will launch on the Green River side. You may have the opportunity to do all of the above activities, or you may have a variety of other memorable and exciting experiences. Holiday’s motto is “Go With the Flow”, and we encourage you to arrive with an open mind, a flexible attitude, and an appetite for adventure!